In general, digital imaging devices may be one of two types: automatic focus (auto-focus) and fixed-focus. The fixed-focus devices usually are incapable of affecting lens or changing the aperture and, in stead, rely on a large depth of field where the object appears to be in focus. Although acceptable in many cases, the images captured by fixed-focus devices are not as sharp as those captured by auto-focus devices.
Images captured at the focal point of a lens will be in sharp focus, where the focal point is defined as the point on the axis of the camera lens at which light rays converge or appear to converge. However, an adequately sharp image can be produced, provided the object is within the depth of field of the lens. The depth of field is a range of distance from a camera within which the captured image of an object is sufficiently focused. Thus, relative to the lens, the depth of field is a range of area spanned both sides of the exact focal point.
There are different methods and associated apparatus to automatically focus a digital imaging device. In one method the lens is moved in a direction that increases the intensity of the light on light sensing elements and is stopped after the maximum intensity is achieved. Another automatic focusing technique relies upon finite impulse response (FIR) filters to determine the edge features and their sharpness. Such a technique is less effective in case of images with widely varying intensity/color values, since averaging distorts results.
The prior art abounds with auto-focus control circuits and apparatus, many of which employ means of measuring the distance from the object of interest and map it to some measurable quantity that drives the optical system to arrive at the correct focus. This method of auto-focusing is performed in parallel to the main imaging path, which is ideal for film-based cameras.
As digital imaging devices become dominant in the market, auto-focusing means rely mainly on the data obtained from the main imaging data path. The basic assumption is that the best focus condition is achieved when the image contains the maximum amount of high frequency information, measured by applying digital filtering to a portion of the digitized image data. The computed energy of the filtered spectrum is employed as a measure of frequency content.
While superior in many cases, auto-focus digital imaging devices are more complicated in terms of hardware, more expensive to manufacture, and slower in operation than fixed-focus devices. It is desirable to provide auto-focusing with minimum cost and minimum additional space, and to be able to utilize existing components of an imaging device without adding dedicated components for automatic focusing.